Life and Love

I want to play guitar. And I want to be able to really sing too.These are two of the many things on my bucket list. There's lots of different things on that growing list. Maybe you think it's too morbid to think of death at such a young age, but death is an important part of life- it doesn't consume my thoughts, but occasionally it does cross my mind. Living life to the fullest is my main goal in life, as I suspect it is important to many other people as well. I want to experience many different flavors, places, people, music, art, ideas.... etc.

Recently I was able to listen to Bishop Blair speak and when asked what the biggest blessing in his life has been, he answered that it was all the people he's met in his life. I think he really hit the nail on the head for all of us. His answer wasn't something that he has done, or experienced, or a place he's visited. It was simply his life crossing the paths of other people's lives. Relationships.

Relationships with people is love- in some degree, not always because we're not perfect, but sometimes it isn't necessarily our love or their love, it's God's love even when we don't feel it. He has created the relationships in our lives for some purpose, so shouldn't we focus more on the people in our lives and how we interact with them? Are we really aware of all the people whose paths we cross each and everyday? If living life to the fullest weighs heavily on love, then shouldn't we love to the fullest? Even the people who make us want to scream, pull out our hair, and slap them. Maybe it is these people through whom God offers the best opportunities of learning. We learn patience, how to hold our tongues, trusting in Him to see problems through, and a variety of other things- even lessons about ourselves.

People come and go in our lives, but no matter the duration or type of interaction, God works through them to shape us into the people He wants us to be. Shouldn't we love these trying opportunities to the fullest? These opportunities to grow into the person God desires of us? Wouldn't loving to the fullest be living to the fullest? Isn't God's infinite knowledge and plans for everything in His creation be better than our own microscopic ideas of the "fullest" that litter our bucket lists?

 If only life was simple enough to put these ideas into action, but a simple life is another topic for another day.
Love and warm wishes. :)